S.F. police chief apologizes to boy and family for shooting,insensitivity

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, March 4, 2000

As an investigation began into the accidental shooting by a San Francisco police officer of an 11-year-old who called 911, Chief Fred Lau offered apologies to the boy and his family.

Lau said police Lt. David Robinson and other cops had been able to begin a dialogue with Max Castro and his family members, who said after Thursday night's shooting that police had been insensitive.

"We should have done other things," Lau said Friday. "We should have spent more time with them and answered more of their questions."

Max called 911 Thursday night to report that he had received a threatening phone call. Police arrived, and an officer shot at the family's attacking sheep dog, missing the animal but wounding both his partner and the boy.

Max's mother, Rebecca Alberti-Castro, said she was upset that police on the scene wouldn't tell her what happened, and complained that there had been no sense of apology from the officers. The boy's father, Victor, became upset when he arrived at the home, and was handcuffed and told to lie on the ground.

Lau said he had offered to have the boy transported home in the department limousine after his release from the hospital.

"We don't want any young person or any person at all to feel reluctant to call 911," said Lau, who went to the hospital Thursday night with the police chaplain, but felt the situation was too emotional for a conversation.

"I think the only one who has shown any shred of humanity is Robinson," Alberti said.

Alberti said the boy was still taking morphine for the pain, and might need more surgery.

Meanwhile the officer who shot the boy, Julian Ng, and the officer who was shot, Jennifer Dorantes, remained on paid leave while the police homicide unit and internal affairs division conduct separate investigations.

The homicide unit looks into every shooting in which an officer wounds or kills a person to determine whether criminal wrongdoing occurred.

Under department rules, the discharge of a firearm is considered a last resort when an officer is trying to gain control of a situation. Witnesses said the dog had been biting Dorantes when Ng fired the shot.

While Lau said it was important to show some humanity toward the wounded boy, he stressed the importance of fairness and "due process" to the officers.

"I'm the father of a 5-year-old, and I can fully understand the emotions of a child being injured," Lau said. "I can also understand the emotions of a police officer seeing a colleague injured."

Police spokesman Officer Sherman Ackerson said that the first priority was the well-being of the boy, but that there were other issues that had to be dealt with.

The Castros' two dogs - the sheep dog that bit Dorantes and a German shepherd - remained under lock and key with San Francisco animal control

officers.

Under normal circumstances,

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there would be a police hearing into the fate of the dogs, but Ackerson said this matter was a special case.

"The chief has suggested that a neutral party look at the case," Ackerson said. "Because of the emotional issues, we're probably going to bow out." &lt;

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